MISD aims to be proactive in improving schools

By Tessa Duvall | tduvall@mrt.com

Published 5:27 pm, Saturday, November 1, 2014

Photo: Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

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First year teacher Melissa Schwartz and her kindergartners prepare for their first day of school with the "Get Ready" song Monday at Milam Elementary School in 2010. MISD Superintendent Ryder Warren announced in a letter to parents on Oct. 17 that, effective Oct. 20, Milam Elementary School’s principal, Carlton Johnson, will be assistant principal at the Midland Alternative Program while Milam’s assistant principal, Iliana Bermea, is now campus principal. less

First year teacher Melissa Schwartz and her kindergartners prepare for their first day of school with the "Get Ready" song Monday at Milam Elementary School in 2010. MISD Superintendent Ryder Warren announced ... more

Photo: Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

MISD aims to be proactive in improving schools

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The first six weeks of the academic calendar are the foundation for the rest of the school year, and, because of this, Midland ISD Superintendent Ryder Warren said he’s not going to delay taking action if schools don’t start off on the right foot.

“We are going to make sure we track progress like we’ve never done before and better than we’ve done before so that I can see if we are academically growing (and) improving as a school district,” Warren said.

That monitoring, so far, has meant administrative changes at one east Midland elementary campus. Warren announced in a letter to parents on Oct. 17 that, effective Oct. 20, Milam Elementary School’s principal, Carlton Johnson, will be assistant principal at the Midland Alternative Program while Milam’s assistant principal, Iliana Bermea, is now campus principal. Sha Burdsal, former Travis Elementary and new Bunche Elementary principal, is also placed at Milam as a principal mentor.

In August, Milam received the accountability rating of “improvement required” from the Texas Education Agency for the second-consecutive year. The state measures campuses in four categories — student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness — and Milam missed the mark in all four indexes in 2014.

Milam’s TEA rating combined with a lack of progress in the first six-week session spurred the leadership shake-up. Milam is the only campus to undergo such changes, but Warren said every one of the district’s 35 campuses is “under the spotlight right now,” declining to specify if other schools could see similar steps taken.

Support systems are being set up at each school, regardless of whether the campus has been deemed improvement required by the state, he said. The TEA did not mandate the changes at Milam, he said.

“Whatever those systems look like, we’re going to infuse (them) into the programs right now,” Warren said. “We’re not going to wait. We’re not going to hesitate. We’re going to evaluate and make adjustments as needed.”

MISD has assigned Burdsal, a principal of more than 12 years, to help with the transformation at Milam. Warren said Burdsal has developed a strong system to help teachers understand student data. Burdsal was the principal to lead Travis out of improvement required this year.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “She truly leads teachers to understand their children in reference to the metrics that we use to gauge learning. She is a master of that.”

In her first two weeks at Milam, Burdsal and other campus leaders have met with the staff to identify their areas of strengths and weaknesses and coaching them to begin teaching at a higher level. The next step is focusing on the needs of students, seeing where they are currently in terms of academic attainment and how they can move forward.

The key to success, she said, is setting smaller goals along the way to the long-term goal of meeting standard in order to build morale on campus.

“If we only look at the end goal of passing at the end of year, it’s going to be very daunting,” Burdsal said. “We’re doing it in little, small chunks and having short thresholds that we’re meeting so the teachers and kids can see, ‘Yes, I can do this. Yes, I can meet this one, short-term goal.’”

Milam could meet standard in the 2015 accountability ratings, but due to the range of needed improvements, it could take a couple of years to accomplish, she said.

The climate at Milam is changing already, Burdsal said.

“It was a little oppressive when we came in, but now the kids are following directions, and they know their expectations to where we can just focus on learning,” she said.

Establishing relationships with students and parents is also crucial, Burdsal said.

“The kids will do anything for a teacher that they know loves them and cares about them,” she said. “That’s first and foremost the most important thing we have to do: build relationships with students and with their parents.”

Milam hosted a literacy night on campus Tuesday night, which was attended by 120 kids’ parents, she said. Engaging and encouraging parents will remain an important part of school success, she said.

“But a lot of it is times to reach out positively, not just when something negative happens,” Burdsal said.